Frans Francken I or Frans Francken the Elder (1542,

Herentals Herentals () is a municipality and city in the province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the city of Herentals proper and the towns of Morkhoven and Noorderwijk. In 2022, Herentals had a total population of 28,455. The total area is . Saint ...

– 1616,

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

) was a

Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...

painter who was one of the principal painters in Antwerp during the

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also sometimes called the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to or from similar insights as, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It w ...

.Ursula Härting. "Francken."
Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 25 August 2023 He is mainly known for his large altarpieces and allegorical paintings. He was a member of the Francken dynasty of painters that played an important role in the Antwerp art scene in the late 16th century and the 17th century.Frans Francken (I)
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

Life

Francken was born in Herentals as the son of Nicholas Francken, an obscure painter from Herentals. His father later settled in

and was likely his first teacher. He became a master of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1567 and was its deacon in 1587. His younger brothers

Hieronymus Francken I Hieronymus Francken I or Hieronymus Francken the Elder (ca. 1540, Herentals – 1610, Paris) was a Flemish people, Flemish painter and an important member of the Francken family of artists. After training in Antwerp, he was mainly active in Fr ...

and

Ambrosius Francken I Ambrosius Francken I (1544–1618) was a Flemish painter known for his religious works and historical allegories painted in a late Mannerist style. He was a prominent member of the Francken family of artists, which played a very important ro ...

both became successful painters. The early biographer

Karel van Mander Karel van Mander (I) or Carel van Mander IKarel van Mander
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History ...

wrote that Frans Francken the Elder was a pupil of the leading Antwerp

Romanist Romanist may refer to: * A person who studies the history of Rome * A historian or archaeologist who specialises in Ancient Rome * A person who is a student of the Romance languages * A Netherlandish painter painting in the Romanist style * Rom ...

painter

Frans Floris Frans Floris, Frans Floris the Elder or Frans Floris de Vriendt (17 April 15191 October 1570) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman, print artist and tapestry designer. He is mainly known for his history paintings, allegorical scenes and portraits. ...

.Frans Francken
in

Karel van Mander Karel van Mander (I) or Carel van Mander IKarel van Mander
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History ...

's ''

Schilder-boeck or is a book written by the Flemish writer and painter Karel van Mander first published in 1604 in Haarlem in the Dutch Republic, where van Mander resided. The book is written in 17th-century Dutch and its title is commonly translated into En ...

'', 1604 The Romanists were Netherlandish painters who had typically travelled to Italy to study the works of leading Italian

High Renaissance In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...

artists such as

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

and their followers. Their art assimilated these Italian influences into the Northern painting tradition.Carl Van de Velde. "Frans Floris I." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 26 March 2015 In 1571 he collaborated with his older brother Hieronymus on a large ''Adoration of the Magi'' triptych (Brussels,

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (, ; , ) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They are part of the institutions of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) and consist of six museums: the Oldmasters Museum, the ...

and London, Brompton Oratory) which bears his monogram as well as that of his brother Hieronymus. The brothers included self-portraits in profile: Hieronymus on the left side and Frans on the right side of the triptych.Peeters, Natasja, ''Connecting people : documenting the activities of the Antwerp painter Hieronymus Francken, and other Floris disciples, in Paris after 1566'', in: Les échanges artistiques entre les anciens Pays-Bas et la France, 1482 - 1814 : actes du colloque international organisé par l'Institut de recherches historiques du Septentrion - UMR CNRS 8529 - Université de Lille 3 au Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille les 28-29-30 mai 2008 (2010), 117-128 Frans Francken married Elisabeth Mertens. The couple had many children, of whom at the time of his death in 1619 six were still alive: Thomas ( b Antwerp, 28 Feb 1574; d Antwerp, c. 1625 ),

Frans Frans is an Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish given name, sometimes as a short form of '' François'' or '' Franciscus''. One cognate of Frans in English is '' Francis''. Given name * Frans van Aarssens (1572� ...

Hieronymus Hieronymus, in English pronounced or , is the Latin form of the Ancient Greek name (Hierṓnymos), meaning "with a sacred name". It corresponds to the English given name Jerome (given name), Jerome. Variants * Albanian language, Albanian: Jeroni ...

, Ambrosius II ( b Antwerp, c. 1590; d Antwerp, bur 8 Aug 1632 ), Magdalena and Elisabeth. The four sons all became painters. His pupils included his son

Gortzius Geldorp Gortzius Geldorp (1553–1618) was a Flemish Renaissance artist who was active in Germany where he distinguished himself through his portrait paintings. Life Gortzius Geldorp was born in Leuven. The early Flemish biographer Karel van Mander ...

, Herman van der Mast and Jan de Wael.

Work

Frans Francken the Elder worked mainly on altar pieces as there was a great demand for such works as a result of the

iconoclasm Iconoclasm ()From . ''Iconoclasm'' may also be considered as a back-formation from ''iconoclast'' (Greek: εἰκοκλάστης). The corresponding Greek word for iconoclasm is εἰκονοκλασία, ''eikonoklasia''. is the social belie ...

of the

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

s. His masterpiece is a triptych entitled '' Christ among the Scribes'', which was made for the

Antwerp Cathedral The Cathedral of Our Lady () is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Antwerp, Belgium. Today's seat of the Diocese of Antwerp started in 1352 and, although the first stage of construction was ended in 1521, has never been 'completed'. It was construct ...

in 1587. The figures are rather wooden in the late Mannerist style. However, the heads show the artist's skill for portraiture. Frans Francken I was also a portrait painter and a few court portraits have been attributed to him. His earliest paintings were in the style of Frans Floris but after 1600 he developed his own style which displayed classicising characteristics not unlike those in the work of

Otto van Veen Otto van Veen (also known by his Latinized names Otto Venius or Octavius Vaenius; 1556 – 6 May 1629), was a Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, and Humanism, humanist active primarily in Antwerp and City of Brussels, Brussels in the late ...

.Franks Francken I, in: Walter A. Liedtke, ''Flemish Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art'', Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1984, p. 224 Frans Francken the Elder painted small-scale

cabinet picture A cabinet painting (or cabinet picture) is a small painting, typically no larger than in either dimension, but often much smaller. The term is especially used for paintings that show full-length figures or landscapes at a small scale, rather th ...

s, a genre in which his sons Frans and

would excel. He was further known for his allegorical paintings and his son Frans would continue this tradition. An example of an allegorical painting is '' The Battle of Time against Death'' in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen.

Family tree

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Francken, Frans 1 1542 births 1616 deaths Flemish Renaissance painters Flemish history painters Painters from Antwerp